In hot pursuit of Jamie Whincup on the final lap, Chaz Mostert declared he was prepared to push the Red Bull driver out of the way to blast into the lead of an epic Supecheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
Running on empty Whincup went on the defensive as Mostert’s FPR Falcon closed rapidly in a gripping finish that saw the 22-year-old catch his prey at Forrest’s Elbow.
“If he (Whincup) coughed and spluttered I was going to give him a push. I was that far up his clacker,” Mostert said.
“I wanted to put the pressure on all the way to the finish line.
“Coming across the top he was conserving hard and I was putting in some PB’s (personal bests) in the second sector. I was hanging it out.
“I even got scared at my old favourite corner at Reid Park (where Mostert crashed the Greens’ Tuff Falcon last year). It was on.”
As an avalanche of emotion started to kick in, Mostert could scarcely find the words to describe his feelings at winning Bathurst at just 22 years of age.
“I’m so mind blown right now I can’t even understand how we got there,” Mostert told Speedcafe.com
“Everything has just pieced itself together today.
“It’s a Bathurst 1000, you never know what’s going to happen.
“We had the race suspended through the middle there, we had one of the most amount of stops we’ve ever had, we’ve had the longest race of the day and we came out on top.”
When his co-driver Paul Morris was dispatched into the outside tyre barrier Griffin’s Bend after striking a section of tarmac which had broken up, Mostert said he breathed a sigh of relief once the Falcon was extricated from its resting place.
“If we were buried in the fence at Sandown I’d be more worried because the chance of going a lap down is so much higher,” he said.
“At Bathurst we just got it out and stayed on the lead lap, plus there was a safety car out and I knew we were going to catch the back of the train.
“I was never worried once I knew he got out.
“Paul radioed that the car felt fine. The boys did an awesome job in the pit stop to make sure there was no flappy bits on the car.
“There’s probably been some better looking Bathurst 1000 winners but once we rolled through there in #1 it looked pretty special.”
Discussion about this post